Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol 3

rson; and, as if he meant to
insult the public opinion, he frequently showed himself to the
soldiers and people, with the dress and arms, the long bow, the
sounding quiver, and the fur garments of a Scythian warrior. The
unworthy spectacle of a Roman prince, who had renounced the dress
and manners of his country, filled the minds of the legions with
grief and indignation. ^7 Even the Germans, so strong and
formidable in the armies of the empire, affected to disdain the
strange and horrid appearance of the savages of the North, who,
in the space of a few years, had wandered from the banks of the
Volga to those of the Seine. A loud and licentious murmur was
echoed through the camps and garrisons of the West; and as the
mild indolence of Gratian neglected to extinguish the first
symptoms of discontent, the want of love and respect was not
supplied by the influence of fear. But the subversion of an
established government is always a work of some real, and of much
apparent, difficulty; and the throne of Gratian